Walpurgis Night is the English translation of
Walpurgisnacht, one of the Dutch and German names for the night of 30 April, so
called because it is the eve of the feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century
abbess in Francia. In Germanic folklore Walpurgisnacht, also called Hexennacht
(Dutch: heksennacht; literally "Witches'
Night"), is believed to be the night of a witches' meeting on the
Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, a range of wooded hills in
central Germany between the rivers Weser and Elbe. The first known written
occurrence of the English translation "Walpurgis Night" is from the
19th century. Local variants of Walpurgis Night are observed across Europe in
the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia,
Finland and Estonia.

Name

The current festival is, in most countries that celebrate
it, named after the English missionary Saint Walpurga (c. 710–777/9). As
Walpurga's feast was held on 1 May (c. 870), she became associated with May
Day, especially in the Finnish and Swedish calendars. The eve of May Day,
traditionally celebrated with dancing, came to be known as Walpurgisnacht
("Walpurga's night"). The name of the holiday is Walpurgisnacht or
Hexennacht ("Witches' Night") in German, Heksennacht in Dutch
Valborgsmässoafton in Swedish, Vappen in Finland Swedish, Vappu in Finnish,
Volbriöö, (Walpurgi night) in Estonian, Valpurgijos naktis in Lithuanian,
Valpurģu nakts or Valpurģi in Latvian, čarodějnice and Valpuržina noc in Czech.

The Germanic term Walpurgisnacht is recorded in 1668 by
Johannes Praetorius as S. Walpurgis Nacht or S. Walpurgis Abend. An earlier
mention of Walpurgis and S. Walpurgis Abend is in the 1603 edition of the
Calendarium perpetuum of Johann Coler, who also refers to the following day, 1
May, as Jacobi Philippi, feast day of the apostles James the Less and Philip in
the Catholic calendar.

The 17th-century German tradition of a meeting of
sorcerers and witches on May Day eve (Hexennacht, "Witches' Night")
is influenced by the descriptions of Witches' Sabbaths in 15th- and
16th-century literature

The Netherlands

As in all Germanic countries, Walpurgisnacht was
celebrated in areas of what is now the Netherlands. It is not celebrated today
due to the national Koninginnedag falling on the same date, though the new
koningsdag (king's day) is on 27 April. The island of Texel celebrates a
festival known as the 'Meierblis (nl)' (roughly translated as 'May-Blaze') on
that same day, where bonfires are lit near nightfall, just as on Walpurgis. But
with the meaning to drive away the remaining cold of winter and welcome spring.
Occasional mentions to the ritual occur, and at least once a feminist group
co-opted the name to call for attention to the position of women (following the
example of German women's organizations), a variety of the Take Back the Night
phenomenon.

Still, in recent years a renewed interest in
pre-Christian religion and culture has led to renewed interest in Walpurgis
Night as well. In 1999, suspicions were raised among local Reformed party
members in Putten, Gelderland of a Walpurgis festival celebrated by Satanists.
The party called for a ban. Whether such a festival even existed, however, and
whether it was 'Satanic', was doubted by others.

Rumors that Satanic sects celebrate Walpurgis Night come
from other towns as well, with the local churches in Dokkum, Friesland
organizing a service in 2003 to pray to the Holy Spirit to counter such Satanic
action.

Saint Walpurga or Walburga (Old English: Wealdburg,
Latin: Valpurga, Walpurga, Walpurgis; c. AD 710 – 25 February 777 or 779), also
spelled Valderburg or Guibor, was an English missionary to the Frankish Empire.
She was canonized on 1 May ca. 870 by Pope Adrian II. Walpurgis Night (or
"Walpurgisnacht") is the name for the eve of her day, which coincides
with May Day.

Early life

Walpurga was born in the county of Devonshire, England,
into a local aristocratic family. She was the daughter of St. Richard the
Pilgrim, one of the underkings of the West Saxons, and of Winna, sister of St.
Boniface, Apostle of Germany, and had two brothers, St. Willibald and St.
Winibald. Saint Richard is buried in the Basilica of San Frediano, Lucca, where
he died on pilgrimage in 722. Saint Richard is also known as Richard the Saxon
Pilgrim, of Droitwich.

Religious career

St. Richard, when starting with his two sons on a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land, entrusted Walburga, then 11 years old, to the
abbess of Wimborne. Walpurga was educated by the nuns of Wimborne Abbey,
Dorset, where she spent 26 years as a member of the community. She then
travelled with her brothers, Willibald and Winebald, to Francia (now
Württemberg and Franconia) to assist Saint Boniface, her mother's brother, in
evangelizing among the still-pagan Germans. Because of her rigorous training,
she was able to write her brother Winibald's vita and an account in Latin of
his travels in Palestine. As a result, she is often called the first female
author of both England and Germany.

Walpurga became a nun in the double monastery of
Heidenheim am Hahnenkamm, which was founded by her other brother, Willibald,
who appointed her as his successor. Following his death in 751, she became the
abbess.

Death

Walpurga died on 25 February 777 or 779 (the records are
unclear) and was buried at Heidenheim; the day carries her name in the Catholic
church calendar. In the 870s, Walpurga's remains were transferred to Eichstätt.
In Finland, Sweden, and Bavaria, her feast day commemorates the transfer of her
relics on 1 May.

The Reinheitsgebot literally "purity
order"), sometimes called the "German Beer Purity Law" in
English, is the collective name for a series of regulations limiting the
ingredients in beer in Germany and its predecessor states. The most well-known
version of the law was adopted in Bavaria in 1516, but similar regulations
predate the Bavarian order, and modern regulations also significantly differ
from the 1516 Bavarian version.

The most influential predecessor of the modern
Reinheitsgebot was a law first adopted in the duchy of Munich in 1487. After
Bavaria was reunited, the Munich law was adopted across the entirety of Bavaria
on April 23, 1516. As Germany unified, Bavaria pushed for adoption of this law
on a national basis (see Broader adoption).

German beer: 500 years of 'Reinheitsgebot' rules

This weekend marks 500 years since the Duke of Bavaria
introduced the "Reinheitsgebot" or purity law - strict rules
controlling what can go into beer.

And beer lovers across Germany will be celebrating at
events (read: subsidised drinking opportunities) to mark the anniversary of the
famous food law.

As Chancellor Angela Merkel partakes of an obligatory
Pils with German brewers in the Bavarian town of Ingolstadt, the BBC's Claudia
Allen takes a look at the Reinheitsgebot, and what it means for German beer
today.

Why was the purity law introduced?

The decree known as the Reinheitsgebot, issued in
Ingolstadt in 1516, had three aims: to protect drinkers from high prices; to
ban the use of wheat in beer so more bread could be made; and to stop
unscrupulous brewers from adding dubious toxic and even hallucinogenic
ingredients as preservatives or flavourings.

They included herbs and spices such as rosemary and
caraway, henbane, thorn-apple, wood shavings, roots, soot or even pitch,
according to the German Brewers' Association (DBB).

Duke Wilhelm IV's beer purity regulation of 1516, which
was preceded by earlier rules on beer production, was gradually implemented in
other parts of southern Germany. It eventually became law in the north and thus
the whole country in 1906.

The DBB claims that the Reinheitsgebot is the oldest
currently valid consumer protection law in the world.

What can go into German beer?

The original law limited ingredients to just barley, hops
and water.

The exact role of yeast in alcoholic fermentation was not
understood at the time and it was only later that brewers were able to add the
micro-organism as a specific ingredient.

The production of wheat beers remained limited in Bavaria
for centuries but is now allowed.

So the law now states that malted grains, hops, water and
yeast may be used - but nothing else.

What about EU regulations?

Beers brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot have special
status under European Union laws as a protected traditional foodstuff.

However European law means that the German brewing
industry has had to accept that beers brewed elsewhere not in accordance with
the Reinheitsgebot can be sold in the country.

Beer is the world's most widely consumed and probably the
oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after
water and tea. The production of beer is called brewing, which involves the
fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cereal grains—most commonly
malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), and rice are widely used. Most
beer is flavoured with hops, which add bitterness and act as a natural
preservative, though other flavourings such as herbs or fruit may occasionally
be included. The fermentation process causes a natural carbonation effect,
although this is often removed during processing, and replaced with forced
carbonation. Some of humanity's earliest known writings refer to the production
and distribution of beer: the Code of Hammurabi included laws regulating beer
and beer parlours, and "The Hymn to Ninkasi", a prayer to the
Mesopotamian goddess of beer, served as both a prayer and as a method of
remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people.

Beer is sold in bottles and cans; it may also be
available on draught, particularly in pubs and bars. The brewing industry is a
global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and
many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional
breweries. The strength of beer is usually around 4% to 6% alcohol by volume
(abv), although it may vary between 0.5% and 20%, with some breweries creating
examples of 40% abv and above. Beer forms part of the culture of beer-drinking
nations and is associated with social traditions such as beer festivals, as
well as a rich pub culture involving activities like pub crawling, and pub
games such as bar billiards.

Etymology

The word beer comes from old Germanic languages, and is
with variations used in continental Germanic languages, bier in German and
Dutch, but not in Nordic languages. The word was imported into the British
Isles by tribes such as the Saxons. It is disputed where the word originally
comes from.

Many other languages have borrowed the Dutch/German word,
such as French bière, Italian birra, Romanian "bere" and Turkish
bira. The Nordic languages have öl or øl, related to the English word ale.
Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan have words that evolved from Latin cervisia,
originally of Celtic origin. Slavic languages use pivo with small variations,
based on a pre-Slavic word meaning "beverage" and derived from the
verb meaning "to drink".

History of Beer

Beer is one of the oldest beverages humans have produced,
dating back to at least the fifth millennium BC and recorded in the written
history of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. As almost any cereal containing
certain sugars can undergo spontaneous fermentation due to wild yeasts in the
air, it is possible that beer-like beverages were independently developed
throughout the world soon after a tribe or culture had domesticated cereal.
Chemical tests of ancient pottery jars reveal that beer was produced as far
back as about 7,000 years ago in what is today Iran. This discovery reveals one
of the earliest known uses of fermentation and is the earliest evidence of
brewing to date. In Mesopotamia, the oldest evidence of beer is believed to be
a 6,000-year-old Sumerian tablet depicting people drinking a beverage through
reed straws from a communal bowl. A 3900-year-old Sumerian poem honouring
Ninkasi, the patron goddess of brewing, contains the oldest surviving beer
recipe, describing the production of beer from barley via bread.

The invention of bread and beer has been argued to be
responsible for humanity's ability to develop technology and build
civilization. The earliest chemically confirmed barley beer to date was
discovered at Godin Tepe in the central Zagros Mountains of Iran, where
fragments of a jug, at least 5,000 years old was found to be coated with
beerstone, a by-product of the brewing process.

Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe as far back
as 5,000 years ago, and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale.

Beer produced before the Industrial Revolution continued
to be made and sold on a domestic scale, although by the 7th century AD beer
was also being produced and sold by European monasteries. During the Industrial
Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to
industrial manufacture, and domestic manufacture ceased to be significant by
the end of the 19th century. The development of hydrometers and thermometers
changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process, and greater
knowledge of the results.

Today, the brewing industry is a global business,
consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of
smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. More than 133
billion liters (35 billion gallons) are sold per year—producing total global
revenues of $294.5 billion (£147.7 billion) in 2006